The Murder in the Birthday Party
by BonesBug
Summary: It's Michael Hodgins' first birthday party at a petting zoo when Booth and Brennan discover a dead body in the barn. Can they solve the murder before Angela has a complete meltdown?
1. Chapter 1

**The Murder in the Birthday Party**

**Chapter 1**

"Booth come on, if we don't hurry we'll be late for Michael's party!" Brennan called as she was packing Christine's baby bag for the day. It was the day of Michael Hodgins' first birthday party and the first party that Christine would attend.

"I'll be right down I just have to find my other shoe." He replied while frantically trying to locate his missing shoe.

"He always loses his shoes Bones." Parker said while playing with his cooing sister in her rocker.

"You would have never lost it if you would just organize your shoes properly on the shoe rack in the closet." Brennan replied a little annoyed. She enjoyed living with Booth but in every relationship there are one or two qualities in each partner that irritates the other. For Brennan, it would be Booth's disorganization.

"I didn't lose it, I just misplaced it." He stated, "Yes! I found it!" He said with relief and then fumbled to place it on his foot, "You see Bones, that didn't take too long." He said with a smug look on his face while walking down the stairs.

"It took longer than it should have." She said while draping the baby bag on her shoulder, "Can you put Christine in the car please?"

"Sure Bones, come on Chrissy, let's go to Mikey's party." He said while lifting her out of her rocker and then held her gently in his arms while following Brennan and Parker out to the car. Christine was attired in a cute pink dress that allowed for her chubby legs to be shown as well as a little pink hat with her light brown curls sticking out of it. Her big blue eyes shimmered in the sunlight and she looked just like her mother. Michael and Christine were familiar with each other because Angela and Brennan would allow them to play with each other during the week and sometimes on weekends but the two babies were always together at the Jeffersonian daycare.

Booth strapped Christine in her car seat beside Parker and took his seat behind the wheel with Brennan sitting beside him in the passenger's seat. They drove to the venue of the party which was a children's petting zoo that Hodgins rented out for the day. Michael seemed to have an interest in animals so Angela's decision to have the party at a petting zoo was perfect. Angela planned this day for a long time and she wanted everything to run smoothly as it was a day that she would tell her son about when he grows up.

When they arrived at the petting zoo they were quickly greeted by Angela. The venue was beautifully decorated with many colorful balloons and other decorative items that would be appealing to children. There was a few of the kids from daycare and their parents in attendance as well as Angela's father, Cam, Sweets and Wendell. Some of the kids were playing with the chicks in a section of the zoo while others were taking turns riding a pony with their parent by their side ensuring that they would not fall off. Angela also set up a table that had crayons and coloring books resting on it, waiting for some kid to begin using them.

"Hey guys!" Angela said happily and began to hug them all one by one, "Hey Parker, there's some snacks set up on that table over there." She said while pointing towards the snack table, "go help yourself."

"Thanks! I'll be over there dad okay." Parker said waiting on his father's 'go ahead'.

"Sure Parks, have fun." He said before ruffling his curly blonde hair.

"Here, I'll take Christine over to Michael; he's playing with the little chicks. They are so cute Bren, I might just take them all home with me if Mikey doesn't." Angela said while taking Christine from Brennan.

"Will you keep an eye on her, just to make sure she doesn't get hurt?" Brennan asked with a worried expression on her face.

"Don't worry Sweetie, I hired a few nannies to take care of the kids so that us adults can have fun too." Angela said while pointing towards the bar filled to the brim with alcoholic beverages.

"Hey guys, I'm glad you could make it." Hodgins said as he walked towards his friends, holding a beverage in his hand.

"I'll take Christine over to Michael now." Angela excused herself.

"I can't believe Michael is one now Hodgins, it seems like it was just yesterday he was born." Booth said.

"I know man, pretty soon little Christine is going to be one. They grow up so fast."

"Yes they do, Christine has increased in height and body mass quite rapidly. Her fine motor skills are also developing quite quickly. As for Michael, he seems to be walking quite well now."

"Yeah, he's…" Hodgins started but then noticed Angela's father walking towards him, "Excuse me guys, I have to, to go somewhere that's not here… Bye!" He said before running away.

"Well it's just you and me now Bones."

The party was going well. The kids were occupied with the various activities that Angela planned so the adults left them in the care of the nannies so that they could enjoy themselves at the bar. Parker was intrigued by the animals so spent a lot of time petting them and introducing some of the animals to Christine. Michael was unaware that it was his birthday but he was enjoying himself with the baby ducks. Angela was overjoyed because everything was running smoothly. It seemed as if all her months of planning were paying off.

"Dad." Parker said while trying to get his father's attention.

"Sorry guys, excuse me." Booth said to the group of people he was speaking to at the moment, "What's wrong bub? Are you having fun?"

"Yeah, this party is really cool but, when I went over to the barn to see if any horses were in there, I smelt something weird. It was so gross, like someone took a squat over there or something. I just wanted to tell you so that you can tell Angela because it smells so bad dad. As soon as I smelt it I ran away! I wanted to hurl."

"Okay, thanks for telling me Parks, I'll go check it out with Bones before I tell Angela."

"Okay, I'm going to ride the pony again."

"Have fun." He said before turning to Brennan, "Bones, follow me to the barn for a second."

"Why? What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing, it's just that Parker smelt something over there and I just want to make sure that he smelt shit and not something else that could ruin this day."

"Umm, okay."

Brennan followed him over to the barn and smelt something like a rotting corpse. She noticed a few flies flying inside the barn towards the smell and decided to follow them.

"Bones, that smell smells all too familiar. You don't think that it's..."

"It is. It's a dead body." Brennan said standing over the corpse that was covered in slime, rodents, maggots and surrounded by flies.

"You gotta be kidding me." Booth said while looking at the corpse and wondering to himself why these things always happen at the wrong times but most of all, he was concerned with how this could affect the party and if the murderer was wandering about the party, among his kids.

"I'm not Booth. The victim is a Caucasian male, approximately five and a half feet tall. That's all I can determine right now." She said but then noticed something on ribs two, three and four, "The markings on these ribs, are stab wounds." She said pointing to the bones, "Booth, this is murder."

"Murder, at Angela's kid's birthday party?" He said with disbelief, "Bones this is a disaster."

"I agree but we have to solve this murder regardless of where we are, it's our job."

"I know Bones, I know. But Angela, she's going to be crushed. This is her kid's first birthday party. What if this was to happen at Christine's first birthday?"

"I wouldn't be pleased Booth but we have to identify the victim and find his killer. We need Angela to do help us do that. We need everybody."

"Okay Bones, fine. But how are we going to tell Angela?"

~To Be Continued~


	2. Chapter 2

**The Murder in the Birthday Party**

**Chapter 2**

"You guys are kidding." Angela laughed after her friends told her of the murder. Booth and Brennan were apprehensive about telling her but when they did they expected her to scream, shout or possibly faint. They were not expecting her to laugh it off.

"Actually Ange, we aren't kidding. We are actually being quite serious. Maybe if you follow us back to the barn and see the victim for yourself, you won't be in denial." Brennan suggested since it was obvious that Angela was indeed in denial.

"No sweetie, I love you but no. I don't need to follow you guys to the barn because there is no dead body there." Angela said as she poured a bag of chips in a bowl, "If you two don't mind I'm going to serve this bowl of chips. I'm telling you, these kids eat like a hungry pack of wolves."

"Now what do we do?" Brennan sighed while watching her friend walk away in denial.

"Let's just go tell Cam, and then we'll get back to Angela. By the way Bones, since we are at a children's party, let's try to speak as softly as we can when talking about M-U-R-D-E-R." He whispered, "Okay?"

"Okay." Brennan whispered playfully in his ear, "Oh look, here's Cam." She said as she noticed Cam walking towards the bar, "Cam!"

"Oh, hey Dr. Brennan." Cam smiled, "having fun?"

"Absolutely not because there has been a murder."

"Geez Bones, I told you to speak quietly. Look at all the kids around you."

"Wh-what?" Cam said dumbfounded.

"Come on, let's go over there." Booth said while leading them over to a secluded nearby tree, "so Parker smelt something strange over by the barn and told me about it. I went to check it out with Bones and it turned out to be a dead body."

"I took a look at it and I concluded that it was a Caucasian male around thirty years. He was murdered but we need Hodgins to analyze the soil samples and determine how long ago he was murdered and we also need Angela to do a facial reconstruction. The problem is that Angela seems to be in some sort of denial. We haven't gotten around telling Hodgins yet since he's busy running away from Angela's father." Brennan explained.

"I can understand why Angela is in denial. This is a disaster!" Cam shouted.

"Okay just calm down Cam. You are the leader of this team, tell us what to do."

"Okay." She said then took a deep breath before beginning, "we need to pull Angela out of her denial."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Booth asked.

"We're going to tell her that some kid wandered over to the barn and scraped his knee or something over there. That way she'll have to come over to the barn."

"And there she'll see the dead body." Brennan finished.

"Exactly. Booth and I will be at the barn while you look for Angela." She said turning to Brennan.

…

"Oh God, this cannot be happening right now! How the hell did that kid manage to get away from the nanny?" Angela said as she followed Brennan to the barn carrying a first aid kit in her hand. If she was reacting so negatively to a simple scrape on a child's knee, imagine how she will be when she comes to believe that a dead body was discovered at her son's first birthday party.

"I'm sure the child will be fine Ange. You just need tend to his wound and everything will be alright." Brennan lied.

"Well at least it's nothing more than that."

Boy was she in for a surprise.

When they arrived at the barn Angela saw Cam and Booth standing at the entrance to the barn but saw no child in sight. She looked at Cam and noticed that she had a fake smile plastered on her face just like Booth. She knew something strange was going on but could not put her finger in it until she smelt that smell that was all too familiar, the scent that made her stomach turn.

"Okay guys, what's going on here?" Angela asked nervously.

"You didn't believe us at first." Booth said while taking her hand to lead her inside the barn.

It was unsightly. Angela has seen many corpses in her life due to her employment at the Jeffersonian, but something about this one made her want to throw up and run for the hills. Perhaps it was because it was discovered at her son's birthday party. One of the most memorable days she would ever have with her son. His first birthday. The first child's party that she has ever planned. _Why here? Why now? _That was what she was wondering. It seemed as if murder followed her everywhere. It wasn't fair to have such gruesome sadness at a happy occasion as a birthday party. She wanted to cry, to scream, to shout. But she couldn't because she could not run the risk of allowing her guests to become aware of this.

"I can't believe this!" Was all she managed to say at first before the rage settled in, "At my son's freaking first birthday party?" She began, "What the hell am I supposed to tell him when he's older? 'Hi Mikey, you know for your first birthday we had a party at a petting zoo but some dude got murdered' this is an absolute disaster! How the hell did this shit happen? Damn it!" She then began to curse like a sailor, kick up some dirt and throw pebbles at a tree. A good old fashioned tantrum. It was a damn good thing that her guests couldn't hear. After she calmed down a bit, she started to cry hysterically, "I spent months planning this party, and this happens." She sobbed, "is this punishment for all the shit I've done in my life? Is that it?"

Brennan went over to her friend and gave her a hug, in an attempt to console her, "Angela, I know you're sad right now, but we have to be rational and do the most logical thing. We have to end the party now and solve this murder."

"End the party my ass!" Angela said while wiggling her way out of Brennan's embrace, "I did not lose sleep and valuable time planning this party for it to be cut short. There is no way in hell I'm ending this party now."

"But Angela, how to you intend to solve the murder with all these kids running around?"

"Hey, we found a way to solve a murder at a funeral. I think we can manage this."

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Booth asked Angela with a very serious look on his face.

"Yes, I'm sure. Just have Clarke drive straight here to the barn and pick up the body and Wendell, I'll take a picture of the skull and work on the facial reconstruction, then you can send my drawing to the guys at the FBI and then we'll have our victim."

"We'll need Hodgins to take soil samples and Booth and I will interrogate the workers here." Brennan added, "Cam, we'll need you to go back to the lab as well and keep us updated on every new development in the case."

"Sounds like a plan." Cam agreed, "I'll call Clarke right now." She said while dialing his number.

Angela took the picture of the skull with her phone and went over to the coloring area that she set up for the kids and took some paper and pencils from the station and then went over to a secluded area to work on the reconstruction without any disturbances. Clarke drove straight to the barn as instructed and was joined by Wendell. Together they managed to get the body in the back of the pickup truck and cover it. Booth located Hodgins and explained everything to him. He brought him to the crime scene where he proceeded to collect samples of the soil. Then he went to the lab to determine the time of death. Cam left with Wendell and Clarke. Brennan trusted her interns to handle the forensics while she was helping Booth with the possible suspects. They purposefully did not include Sweets yet as they saw no need to tell him when he was not needed at the moment. The less people who knew, the better.

Neither of them was completely comfortable with conducting a murder investigation at a child's birthday party but they were going along with it for the sake of Angela's sanity. She really did work hard planning this party and it was understandable that she did not want all her work to be in vain. Whatever it took, they would do their best to solve the murder so that Michael could have a wonderful birthday.

…

**Hi readers! I just wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed and added this story to your alerts and favorites. It really means a lot.**

**I'm beyond happy that we finally have an air date for season 8. September 17! Woohoo! I can't wait and I'm sure you all are just as anxious to see how Brennan and Booth reunite as I am. **

**Stay tuned **

**Hugs!**


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